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Comment by praulv | Hacker News Reader

For someone having never ordered from alibaba or aliexpres - other than briefly fleeting with drone spare parts - what exactly of use and purpose would you buy from there? I can see large scale uses for industrial machinery / commodities but what about the day to day consumer. Pointless gadgets? I briefly looked at lightinthebox for female accessories and they seemed tacky, overly glittery and just plain cheap looking. It did make me wonder about the premium Western consumers pay to line corporate profits for chinese factory products. Ignoring secure, specialised electronics factories, most day to day fashion accessories in Sachs 5th Av, Macy's etc will be quality controlled chinese/indian products. Is it possible to get hold of these on aliexpress?

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I order 3D printer parts, physical hardware (fasteners, typically), electronics components (Arduino work-a-likes and shields), small tchotchkes for kids [birthday party giveaways], cheap computer accessories and cables (USB chargers, USB cables, USB-C adapters, audio adapters and cables, etc).

That's all aliexpress. Alibaba is more industrial, negotiate for pricing; Aliexpress is a pure marketplace. With the subsidized shipping, I can often get something for <$2 that would be $8 on Amazon and $25 at Staples/BestBuy.

As I re-read my comment above, it seems hyperbolic, so I went to check the actual data on the last time I tried to buy something at Staples.

I needed a 1/8" stereo mini to 2 RCA male cable.

Staples: $15.59 - https://www.staples.com/Staples-7-3-5mm-to-Dual-RCA-Y-Adapte...

BestBuy: $9.99 - https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-6-3-5mm-mini-to-rca-st...

Amazon: $4.76 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IE7Z628

Aliexpress: $0.56 / $0.82 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-Mini-Plug-3-5mm-Plug-Jack-...

Monoprice: $1.76 - https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id...

I love Monoprice, but in this case, it's going to be another $2.49 in shipping, where Amazon and Aliexpress prices above include shipping.

I have ordered Lepin from AliExpress, which is a Lego knockoff—the sets are the same, but the prices are 25%, and the quality is 90%.

Do they have knockoffs of the Lego education stuff, like WeDo and Mindstorms? I've been searching on Aliexpress just now and don't see anything like that.

US name brand stuff like this is particular troublesome for me because I am not living in the US. So I pay big shipping costs and then risk corrupt and extortionate customs actions. If I buy local the cost is just as high.

Also, have you seen anything that looks like Vex Robotics knockoffs? Same story - I have a Vex IQ kit and want to buy more but shipping costs are way more than the price of the item I want to buy.

The prices are 25% because the designs are stolen. Not just from official LEGO sets but also from unsuspecting hobbyists.

If you want to buy LEGO knockoffs that's fine, but there are plenty of brands that are almost as cheap as Lepin and produce original (non-stolen) designs.

> there are plenty of brands that are almost as cheap as Lepin and produce original (non-stolen) designs

Lepin does as well, just under the XingBao name.

But the joke's on the both of them—I just buy them for the pieces, not for the set designs.

Honestly if Lego just sold big boxes of bulk technic pieces (like they do for their normal blocks), I'd probably just buy those instead.

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